This picture shows (from left to right) Mokodu Fall, Fabiola Manirakiza and Joy Meribe. Along with two other designers, they opened the recent Milan Fashion Week. Photo composite: AFP
Born in different parts of Africa but all operating under the Made In Italy brand, the five designers who opened Milan Fashion Week as part of a collective, come from diverse backgrounds.
Fabiola Manirakiza, 50, was born in Burundi but it was in Zaire, which became the Democratic Republic Of Congo, that she learned how to sew, in a school run by Italian nuns.
A doctor by training, she used this skill when she founded her label Frida Kiza in Italy in 2016, the name a tribute to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.